Judges 13:9

13:9 God answered Manoah’s prayer. ¹  God’s angelic messenger visited ²  the woman again while she was sitting in the field. But her husband Manoah was not with her.

Judges 13:19

13:19 Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the Lord. The Lord’s messenger did an amazing thing as Manoah and his wife watched. ³ 

Judges 13:21

13:21 The Lord’s messenger did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. After all this happened Manoah realized that the visitor had been the Lord’s messenger. ⁴ 

Judges 13:2

13:2 There was a man named Manoah from Zorah, from the Danite tribe. His wife was infertile and childless. ⁵ 

Judges 13:12-13

13:12 Manoah said, “Now, when your announcement comes true, ⁶  how should the child be raised and what should he do?” ⁷  13:13 The Lord’s messenger told ⁸  Manoah, “Your wife should pay attention to everything I told her. ⁹ 

Judges 13:15

13:15 Manoah said to the Lord’s messenger, “Please stay here awhile, ¹⁰  so we can prepare a young goat for you to eat.” ¹¹ 

Judges 13:17

13:17 Manoah said to the Lord’s messenger, “Tell us your name, so we can honor you when your announcement comes true.” ¹² 

Judges 13:22

13:22 Manoah said to his wife, “We will certainly die, because we have seen a supernatural being!” ¹³ 

Judges 13:16

13:16 The Lord’s messenger said to Manoah, “If I stay, ¹⁴  I will not eat your food. But if you want to make a burnt sacrifice to the Lord, you should offer it.” (He said this because Manoah did not know that he was the Lord’s messenger.) ¹⁵ 

Judges 13:11

13:11 So Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he met ¹⁶  the man, he said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?” ¹⁷  He said, “Yes.” ¹⁸ 

Judges 13:20

13:20 As the flame went up from the altar toward the sky, the Lord’s messenger went up in it ¹⁹  while Manoah and his wife watched. They fell facedown ²⁰  to the ground.

Judges 13:8

13:8 Manoah prayed to the Lord, ²¹  “Please, Lord, allow the man sent from God ²²  to visit ²³  us again, so he can teach ²⁴  us how we should raise ²⁵  the child who will be born.”

Judges 16:31

16:31 His brothers and all his family ²⁶  went down and brought him back. ²⁷  They buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led ²⁸  Israel for twenty years.

[13:9]  ¹ tn Heb “God listened to the voice of Manoah.”

[13:9]  ² tn Heb “came to.”

[13:19]  ³ tc Heb “Doing an extraordinary deed while Manoah and his wife were watching.” The subject of the participle is missing. The translation assumes that the phrase “the Lord’s messenger” was lost by homoioteleuton. If the text originally read לַיהוָה מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה (layhavah mal’akh yÿhvah), the scribe’s eye could have jumped from the first יְהוָה to the second, accidentally omitting two of the three words. Later the conjunction וּ (shureq) would have been added to the following מַפְלִא (mafli’) for syntactical reasons. Another possibility is that a pronominal subject (הוּא, hu’) has been lost in the MT due to haplography.

[13:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “Then Manoah knew that he was the Lord’s messenger.”

[13:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “and had not given birth.”

[13:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “Now, [when] your word comes [to pass].”

[13:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “what will be the child’s rule [i.e., way of life] and his work?”

[13:13]  ¹¹ tn Or “said to.”

[13:13]  ¹² tn Heb “To everything I said to the woman she should pay attention.” The Hebrew word order emphasizes “to everything,” probably because Manoah’s wife did not tell her husband everything the angel had said to her (cf. vv. 3-5 with v. 7). If she had, Manoah probably would not have been so confused about the child’s mission.

[13:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “Please allow us to detain you.”

[13:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “so we can prepare before you a young goat of the goats.”

[13:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Who your name? For [when] your word comes [to pass], we will honor you.” Manoah apparently gets tongue-tied and uses the wrong pronoun (“who” instead of “what”). He starts to say, “Who are you?” But then he switches to “your name” as if he began the sentence with “what.” See R. G. Boling, Judges (AB), 222.

[13:22]  ¹⁷ tn Or “seen God.” Some take the Hebrew term אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) as the divine name (“God”) here, but this seems unlikely since v. 21 informs us that Manoah realized this was the Lord’s messenger, not God himself. Of course, he may be exaggerating for the sake of emphasis. Another option, the one followed in the translation, understands Manoah to be referring to a lesser deity. The term אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is sometimes used of an individual deity other than the Lord (see BDB 43 s.v. 2.a). One cannot assume that Manoah was a theologically sophisticated monotheist.

[13:16]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “If you detain me.”

[13:16]  ²⁰ tn The words “he said this” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Manoah should have known from these words that the messenger represented the Lord. In the preceding narrative the narrator has informed the reader that the visitor is the Lord’s messenger, but Manoah and his wife did not perceive this. In vv. 5 and 7 the angel refers to “God” (אֱלֹהִים, ’elohim), not the Lord (יְהוַה, yÿhvah). Manoah’s wife calls the visitor “a man sent from God” and “God’s messenger” (v. 6), while Manoah prays to the “Lord” (אֲדוֹנָי, ’adonay) and calls the visitor “a man sent from God” (v. 8).

[13:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “came to.”

[13:11]  ²² tn Heb “the woman.”

[13:11]  ²³ tn Heb “I [am].”

[13:20]  ²³ tn Heb “in the flame from the altar.”

[13:20]  ²⁴ tn Heb “on their faces.”

[13:8]  ²⁵ tn The Hebrew text adds “and said.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[13:8]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the man of God.”

[13:8]  ²⁷ tn Heb “come to.”

[13:8]  ²⁸ tc The LXX has “enlighten,” understanding the Hebrew to read וִיאִירֵנוּ (vi’irenu, “to give light”) rather than the reading of the MT, וְיוֹרֵנוּ (vÿyorenu, “to teach”).

[13:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “what we should do for.”

[16:31]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and all the house of his father.”

[16:31]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and lifted him up and brought up.”

[16:31]  ²⁹ tn Traditionally, “judged.”